Just change one thing — lessons learned while SUPing at the beach…

My swimming mates and my stand-up paddleboarding mates all rave about this spot on the English Channel coast so when an impromptu outing popped up, I didn’t think twice.

With my partner, I set off on 15 July for an early rendezvous with a few of my fellow Bray Lake SUPers, and I am so glad I did!

The weather — this weird, un-British summer weather we’ve been having — was truly glorious: not a cloud in the sky, warming up rapidly, and not much of a wind. Well, not at that point.

Three of us kicked off our Sunday with a swim along the beach. The tide was only just starting to come back in at this point, and the water was flat calm and translucent: ideal for a leisurely pre-breakfast 1k.

But then came the serious stuff.

There was a specific reason why I was so keen to go to Hayling last weekend: I have a race just along the coast this coming Saturday. It’s at Sandbanks, near Poole, and it’s a technical race. This means 7k-worth of laps with lots of sharp buoy turns and little room for error.

Apprehensive? Er, just a little.

Because while I had paddled on the sea before (both times in Fuerteventura), I had never done it on my Starboard. It’s not that the Race isn’t designed for the sea; it’s just that it’s not the ideal choice for the sea when the person on it is still clambering up a sharp learning curve.

But nothing ventured, and in I went. And it was actually fine. I did fall off a couple of times and progress wasn’t exactly rapid, but I stayed upright long enough to clock up a respectable 6.9k, paddling mostly parallel to the beach.

Yay, I thought. Cracked it…

Then it was time for lunch, and by now the tide was really rolling in, the wind had picked up, and there was a lot of chop. A lot. I sat and ate and watched and now I felt really apprehensive. But I knew I had to go back onto the water and see what happened because it could easily be like this for the race.

And what followed was a very short, sharp lesson: it was a completely different experience. Now I was spending at least much time in the water as on it and the waves I was failing to negotiate were pretty much matched by the waves of frustration I was experiencing.

After about half an hour of this uneven struggle, I returned to my mates. Could I borrow one of their boards, please? One that’s wider, flatter, with more volume, like the boards I spent so much time on in Fuerteventura? Of course — here you go.

I really needed to know whether I was just totally out of my depth — as it were — or whether I did have the fundamental skills but merely lacked the experience on my own much narrower board to successfully navigate these conditions.

The answer came pretty quickly: it was the latter. I was absolutely fine on the wide, flat board. I didn’t fall in once, I even managed to ride a few waves, and my confidence came flooding back.

Phew! I relaxed for half an hour and watched as the sea settled again with the falling tide, the wind dropped and the water became increasingly benign once more.

Now I felt great — back on my own board and in a happy place. Yes, I fell in a few times, but only when I was pushing my limits and seeing what would happen.

So big lessons learned here — and actually fully transferable ones!

Change one thing. It all boils down to that.

Session one saw the sea entirely playable for me and my Starboard. Session two, the conditions changed and it was no longer playable. Session three, same conditions but different board, and it’s playable again. And session four, back to pretty much the first set of conditions except even better because of what I’d learned during sessions two and three.

But what if it’s hideous next weekend? Not a lot I can do except forgive myself if I fail to finish the race: as with everything, competence — and eventually excellence — flows from practice and I need to spend much, much more time at the beach to get to a place where I’m totally at one with my own board.

And as I love being next to, in and on the ocean, that’s no hardship at all!

Here are my reflections in selfie video form…

Hayling Island photos: Susan Jones

5 Comments

Andrea Richardson
on 18th July 2018 at 1:08 pm

It was lovely to see you and Susan Jones enjoying what is fast becoming my home from home. The only way to be at one with the ocean on your board is to keep practising. Always check the tides times/forecast and wind direction before setting off and during your paddle. Carry a PFD, phone and tell people where you are heading. I know you will do this anyway, it’s more advice for those who read your superb blog. Onwards and upwards Eugenie..

What an amazing experience on your SUP(s)! I think any body of water (river, lake, ocean) can have a variety of conditions! Being able to navigate on SUPs and trying others is the best way to learn! I’ve raced on the Sacramento river delta in stupid windy conditions, actually sitting low on my SUP so I wouldn’t be a sail! Not fun. (Took 2nd though)…What can start as a windless flat water paddle can be a wavy, windy mess there within a few minutes. I’ve managed to “surf” my SUP on those occasions, using my feet to push and turn the board. With your new found experience, I’m sure you will have a blast on the water in your race!

Where I am Making Waves…

This is where you get behind the scenes with me and find out what makes me tick.

There is another purpose, too: I want to help empower others — women in particular, and especially women over 50.

If that’s you, I want to help you discover — just I have — that you don’t need to be constrained by ideas you’ve had about yourself, about what’s expected of you, about what you may believe is and isn’t doable.

I want to share ideas, share my own story, and above all my passion for being physical, being at one with my body, whether that’s through my running, my open water swimming, through ski-ing, stand-up paddleboarding (my newest passion), yoga, or plain old-fashioned walking.

PS And if you’d like to know when I update my blog, please just sign up below.

Your first name

Your email address

The information you share in this form will only ever be used to to contact
you by email when the Making Waves blog is updated. Please tick the consent box if you’re OK with this. I am happy to be added to the Making Waves email list

Leave this field empty if you’re human:

PPS Just so you know, I don’t always toe the line around what makes for optimal health and wellbeing, and I can sometimes be a bit controversial…

Archives

I’d got away with it before, but not this time. And it’s always the mundane stuff: while I was changing the duvet cover, I slammed my left foot into the very solid leg of the wooden bed frame. All five toes made contact and I felt something crunch. I gingerly removed my sock to see […]

Cookies Policy

We only use analytical cookies on our website, which allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it. They do not identify you individually. These cookies help us to improve the way our website works by ensuring that you are easily able to find what you are looking for. Please visit our [Cookies policy] page for more information about cookies and how we use them.